Impacts+of+Deforestation

= = __Impacts of Deforestation__



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**What is Deforestation?**
Deforestation refers to the loss or destruction of naturally occurring forests, usually from human activities such as...

(****Why are they deforesting rain forests?****)
 * Logging
 * Cutting trees for fuel
 * Slash-and-burn agriculture
 * Clearing land for livestock grazing
 * Mining operations
 * Oil extraction
 * Dam building
 * Urban sprawl

**Tropical Rainforests**
Brazil holds about one-third of the world's remaining rainforests, including a majority of the Amazon rainforest. It is also the most biodiverse country because it holds more than 56,000 species of plants, 1,700 species of birds, 695 amphibians, 578 mammals, and 651 reptiles. Brazil has a total forest area of 477,698,000 and 57.2 percent of land area.

Brazil lost more than 132,000 square kilometers of forest (an area larger than Greece) between May 2000 and August 2005, and since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed.

//Reasons:// Clearing for cattle, road construction, agriculture and logging.

Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover about 6%. One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second. Experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.

As rainforest species disappear so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently 121 prescription drugs (25%) sold worldwide come from plant-derives sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are made from rainforest ingredients, only about 1% of the plant species have been studied, so there could be many more cures to illnesses waiting to be discovered.

**What is the link between deforestation and climate change?**
The global climate is affected when the Amazon is used for burning practices to clear fields for farming which then result in large fires that create air pollution and release tiny particles, known as aerosols. Aerosols can heat and cool the air, depending on size, shape and color.

**What is the Impact of this?**
//Loss of Species for Forest Regeneration: //The constant hunting of rainforest species can reduce those species that are important to the rainforest. //Increase of Tropical Diseases:// Tropical diseases and outbreaks of new diseases including hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola and Lassa Fever are impacts of deforestation. //Destruction of Renewable Resources:// Deforestation can ruin potential renewable revenues while replacing valuable productive lands with useless scrub and grassland.

The Amazon rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. By burning the rainforest, we are not only adding huge amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, but we are also reducing nature's ability to absorb carbon dioxide and to produce oxygen. "The more the rainforests are cut down and burned, the more the 'lungs' of the earth will be damaged."

Also deforestation is responsible for more global carbon emissions than all the planes, trains, buses and cars in the world put together.

Massive deforestation brings consequences such as... - air and water pollution - soil erosion - malaria epidemics - the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - the loss of biodiversity through extinction of plants and animals.

Fewer rainforests mean less rain, less oxygen for us to breathe, and an increased threat from global warming.

Fossil Fuels contain mostly carbon and when they are burned they react with oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide doesn't absorb the energy from the sun but it does absorb some of the heat energy released from the earth. When a molecule of carbon dioxide absorbs heat energy, it goes into an excited unstable state and can become stable again by releasing the energy it absorbed. Some of the released energy will go back to the earth and some will go out into space. Carbon dioxide lets the light energy in, but doesn't let all of the heat energy out, which is similar to a greenhouse. Some meteorologists expect that the average temperature of the earth will increase by about 2.5 degrees Celsius -- could be enough to cause glaciers to melt, which would cause coastal flooding. .


 * Citation:**

http://environment.about.com/od/biodiversityconservation/f/deforestation-overview.htm

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?old=2005091320344

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/20brazil.htm

http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/083194.html

http://www.ypte.org.uk/environmental/rainforest/89